Support for teacher with disability

[KaliOMalley]

I have a friend who is training to be a teacher. She has ADHD and dyslexia, and during her years at uni has had extra support such as step by step instructions recorded by her tutor for each task, weekly check lists created by her tutor, extended deadlines, reduced timetable when on placement, break out times when on placement, and other support. She was talking about her NQT year, and how she isn't used to working full days or full time, and will need the same support through her NQT year as she has had at uni.

I tried to gently explain that this kind of support could be tricky for schools to provide, as her IT/ mentor will most likely be a full time teacher themselves and not be able to spend that time on everything. She said that as she has a diagnosed disability she is entitled to this support, and if they don't provide it she can sue for disability discrimination.

I asked her how she would cope if she did pass her NQT year, with all the support, then the support was withdrawn once she was in her second year of teaching, as there would be no expectation for the support any more. She seems to think the check lists, step by step instructions, extended deadlines etc will continue indefinitely through her teaching career, as that's what she needs in order to teach without becoming overwhelmed.

She has applied for an accessibility grant that could give her a laptop and she thinks she could get a TA, which she already plans to use as a PA by the sounds of it, getting them to do all of her marking and planning.

I am really concerned for her that she is being mislead by her uni. I've never heard of support such as this being offered beyond the NQT year. Does her diagnosis ensure this support will be permanent/ as long as she needs it?

Agree this is nothing to do with the type of disability.

I know a teacher with dyspraxia and Aspergers. She's brilliant.
A TA with adhd. Lovely person who does loads for others.
A TA with ASD. Fantastic, amazing ideas for sensory work with other children and is fine but does need warning of changes.

I'd be concerned about anybody who couldn't manage the classroom without FT support - regardless of disability or not.

My ds couldn't manage a whole lesson a few years ago (he also has asd) which is why we looked into units (he attended one for 18 months PT alongside MS).

The reason it's called reasonable adjustments is so people can access careers they can manage - not to have someone on half the lay doing half the job so they can manage.

itsgettingweird
Exactly.
Someone with a visual impairment needing someone to help them read things would make sense
Someone with dyslexia needing access to dragon software to dictate their reports would be reasonable
Someone with ASD needing advance warning of things in addition to the calendar in advance is reasonable
Someone with a mobility issue needing preferential rooming and not to do duties would be reasonable

Someone saying they can't reliably teach the students in front of them because they want to be able to walk out at will, and someone who gets angry, sarcastic and takes their emotions out on the children is someone who fails to meet even the most basic professional expectations.

I would say someone with a visual impairment would really struggle in primary when so much of what you do relies on having eyes in the back of your head!

Depending on the level of impairment though the adjustments could be made, especially given TAs are more common in classes at primary. It may well be less of an issue if you're teaching A level and the level of impairment isn't significant.

People have to be able to do the central role ultimately and if they can't do it with reasonable adjustments then that's likely not to be a route for them.

In the case of OP's friend, she has to leave the classroom regularly, uses the children as her emotional outlet and seems to want to outsource most of her job whilst being paid for it.

I think it was comments like these that offended me - though tbh I'm pretty sure some parents would be against a physically disabled teacher too, I've known some treated appallingly at work.
This is going to sounds so dickish but how is she going to teach spellings,test them, mark them in the kids work or read the various writing styles some kids have

I'm going to be blunt and say that I don't think people with ADHD and dyslexia are cut out to be teachers

One of my DD's teachers had dyslexia. It was galling to see notes in the homework diary and letters sent home full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

The middle one is dickish.
The others are fairly reasonable principles, for example a dyslexic teacher can do well but they need to have a range of strategies in place. They can't reasonably say "I'm dyslexic so you should accept my SPaG issues and I'll sue you if you challenge me on it".

Ok,

Point 1- it is a blunt question but a question nonetheless and she will either be able to do this to the required standard or not. Dyslexia doesn’t necessarily preclude depending on severity.

Point 2- I’ll give you that it’s an offensive comment. There is no context here which is the problem. Clearly some people with these disabilities are unable to be teachers and some people can be reasonably supported to be great teachers.

Point 3- that’s not great. There is no good reason for a parent to be aware the teacher is dyslexic and the fact they are aware of these things suggests that in the case of that particular teacher the RA were not working and not compensating appropriately for the Disability. ‘The teacher has dyslexia’ is not a good enough reason for poorly written/proofread letters being sent home.

There are reasonable adjustments and unreasonable adjustments. I am partially deaf when I was at school the careers officer sat me down and told me I could never be a firefighter or pilot so I didnt go down those career paths.

Gosh, I’ve been involved in a very similar case. It was messy. Different disability but not a dissimilar case or level of need, spld.

Uni were not upfront and did not feed on support needs for a start which added to the mess. Interview was actually ok, without the background info (and they were out inky candidate on 2 adverts...). They declared it on starting and provided loads of reports, I later found the references had been altered to omit difficulty relating to the disability after a successful request.

I successfully did obtain funding through access to work for a tutor to do not the above, but train the staff member to do the above. They came in weekly to help organise work, plan strategies and I gave release time. I could’ve also obtained dragon talk software and some other recommended aids through this for the staff member had they stayed. The level of support was excellent, and for many people would be providing access to work (another school I know used it to support a deaf teacher successfully with strategies and equipment)

I went in really wanting to make it work, and probably bent over backwards trying. It proved though totally incompatible with teaching pretty fast. Classroom management is the backbone of behaviour management. As an NQT you set the expectations, there is no teacher who’s already organised the class, it was chaos. Also it was very rapidly apparent that the impact on pupils with Sen was unacceptable. They were not planned for and in an environment that was frankly cruel for some of their needs, eg autism and the level of noise and lack of preparation. I couldn’t let the staff member’s needs take priority. I put A LOT in place, but moved to capability and support plans. It went to occupational health, who didn’t add to support at all. If you cannot reasonably organise yourself and be consistently present and deal with some pressure you just cannot have teaching adapted to you. Children are unpredictable and have their own needs. You need to write constantly and organise constantly. On union advice the teacher resigned before the process ended and I accepted. They really should not have been allowed to pass their student placements whilst effectively failing them in many areas. They were not passing them with support, but rather their failing in many areas was accepted due to disability. Somebody needed to have said to them at a far earlier stage whilst they were intelligent with many strengths teaching was not something for them. It did no one any favours and I’m a bit cross to hear it’s clearly not a one off.

I also know 2 HI TA. They work with HI students are are their best resource. Yes, technically they are better than the teacher for the student.
But the teacher can teach extremely well and differentiates the work etc. It's just that the TA are fluent in sign language and also are great at the emotional support part because they truly get it.

We are federated schools and having worked closely last year with one of the HI TA we now always have a chat over the fence as the students all chat over the fence now they know each other. It's improved my teaching. I've had to learn to listen more intently because I'll be honest at first I struggled to understand her.
But that was my issue - not hers.

She's bloody brilliantly at her job and has taken a shy HI boy and last year had him signing a solo in a performance. He's have not achieved that without her.

How do you know this person OP? Through school / uni or a former friendship? Could you support her by suggesting she speaks to her current head (or yours?) about what adjustments really are ‘reasonable’ and which ones she’ll need to work towards working without this year? (I presume she’s nearing the end of her course)

gosh - I think she is heading for the wrong career personally.

This one is an absolute disaster waiting to happen. Yep I taught for many years with anxiety issues (fully diagnosed and treated under a GP before I get accused of the "MN Anxiety" factor) and what I strongly suspect is undiagnosed dyspraxia (I'm currently awaiting an appointment to confirm the diagnosis) - but I only got through that because I had the stubbornness and intelligence to develop strategies like making my own ticklists and systems of organisation to manage... and I never got to leave the classroom because I was feeling a bit wobbly (I left a TA in charge while I went to throw up once though - much to the class's disappointment who really wanted to see a teacher be sick!).

The colleagues I knew who had had adaptations in place in terms of TA support were for cases like someone with back problems who couldn't carry piles of books to her car - so a TA had a slot of time released to help with tasks like that... not doing all her planning and marking for her!

I'm currently doing another degree to switch careers into another profession where we have to prove to meet standards (similar to teaching in that regard). I have a few adaptations in place from university when my anxiety is sky high - but they're in terms of being allowed to leave a lecture slightly early or catch up the odd one on the video replay - so I'm still doing 100% of the work and I wouldn't expect it any other way, and the only consideration I've had with regards to placement is that they made sure it was one that was easy for me to get to as I was getting concerned about the logistics of doing that. No ducking out if I feel wobbly, no one handing me tick lists of what to do (more than the generic assignment guidance we get given). If my ed psych appointment comes out with the results I kind of expect - the most I'd get would be subsidy toward some assistive technology I probably wouldn't even take - I'm just taking the opportunity to get some question marks in my own mind answered with regards things I find harder.